


What I Fight For

by Kinger556



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-17 21:00:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16103711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kinger556/pseuds/Kinger556
Summary: Takes place the night after the Spirit Crucible Elpys dungeon. What if Nia's confession left more of a mark on Rex then how it did in the game?





	1. Chapter 1

This was a one-shot but I kept coming up with ideas for the story so now I'm just going along with it until I finish it since I already have the ending in mind anyway.

* * *

" _I love you, Rex!"_

Rex opened his eyes with a startle and took a gasp of air. He was laying in bed in the middle of the night, now staring at the ceiling. Leaning up, he took a look at his surroundings to see Gramps, Tora, Zeke, and Dromarch all sleeping in either a bed or on the floor. He remembered that they decided to stay another night in Fonsett Village before setting out to rescue Pyra and Mythra.

"A dream...?" he mumbled and lifted his hand up to rub some of the sleep from his eyes.  _"looking back..."_ he began to recollect his thoughts on the moment, it all happened so fast.

" _Nia, I love you too!"_

He lowered his hand looked down at it, deep in thought.  _"She looked so surprised when I said that... But then.."_

" _I love you... And all you guys!"_

Clenching his hand into a fist, he squinted his eyes in discomfort.  _"Why did she... Laugh after that...?"_ Something just didn't feel right about the whole thing to him. _"And what'd she mean by 'That's all I could ask for'?"_

Groaning, he slid his body off the bed and decided to go for a walk outside to try and clear his thoughts. He was met with a pleasant breeze and took in a deep breath of fresh night air.  _"I should visit Fonsett more often..."_  he thought and started to walk down the path when he noticed a bright white light shine from behind a couple houses.

"Wha?" he mumbled and walked over then peaked behind the houses to see what it was. He saw Nia, now in her blade form standing on the cliff where some of the kids go jumping off into the cloud sea.  _"Nia? What's she doing?"_  he asked himself. She was just standing there at the cliffs edge, staring up into the sky.

" _I love you, Rex!"_

His eyes winded for a second and he gasped, remembering what she said again yesterday. Letting out a light groan, he shook his head.  _"Relax Rex, that's not what she meant.."_ he told himself, but he still felt uneasy about the whole thing.  _"This ain't like me! I'll just ask her!"_ he thought and started to walk towards the cliff.

* * *

" _I can't believe I actually said that..."_  Nia thought as she stared up into the night sky. She's been out here for a bit already but just recently decided to take her blade form. It's been so long since she'd casually stroll about in it... It felt nice to be open about it now.  _"The lack of Either must have went to my head or somethin'!"_ she let out a sigh and looked down at the cloud sea.  _"Then my stupid laugh..."_

"So... Are you gonna jump in already or not?" she heard a very memorable voice say.

"Huh?!" Nia turned around to see Rex standing a few feet away. "Or are you too scared?" he taunted. Nia let out a huff and crossed her arms. "Oh please Rex, who would go leapin' into the cloud sea in the middle of the night?"

Rex took a few more steps forward to be standing next to Nia. "Well, don't knock it 'till you try it." he replied and turned to look off the cliff. With her arms still crossed, Nia turned away from him as well. "Feh... Whatever." she then turn to peak at him. "So what're you doin' out here? Can't sleep?"

Rex twitched for a second and then brought his hand up to ruffle the back of his head. "Well... Something like that..." Though it didn't go unnoticed by Nia. "Hm? Somethin' wrong? Don't tell me you had a 'wittle' nightmare?" she jabbed in a baby voice.

Rex groaned and lowered his hand. "Hey, knock it off..." he said then turned to look at her. She was very pretty in her blade form. In fact maybe she always was, that strange bulky tracksuit she always wore always covered her up. Maybe it was to hide her blade features?  _"I love you, Rex!"_  hid eyes widened and a light blush crept across his face.

"Hm? What is it?" she asked noticing him staring and snapping him from his thoughts. His blush went away as quickly as it came but he was still a bit nervous. Looking away from her, he stared down and a random rock on the ground. "W- well... It's about what you said before..." he began to rub the back of his head a little.

"What I said?" she asked, not making the connection just yet. Rex let out a sigh and lowered his hand then looked back up at her. "You know... In the Spirit Crucible... In the vault..."

Nias eyes widened in realization of what he was talking about and she lost her composure a little, stumbling backwards. Though before she could fall, Rex quickly reached up and grabbed her wrist, pulling her back up. "Hey, are you alright?"

She saw him looking a bit concerned. Gritting her teeth, Nia jerked her wrist out of his hand and held it with her other. "Y- yeah... I'm fine." she looked away, not making eye contact. There was a silence after that which felt like it lasted an eternity until Rex broke it.

"Anyway... I just wanted to-"

"Gah! You can be such an idiot sometimes!" she spouted out and glared at him. "Huh?" Rex mumbled, looking confused.

Crossing her arms, Nia stared down Rex. "You think just 'cause you have two girls swoonin' over you that every girl should?" she asked and noticed how flustered he got when she mentioned the 'two girls'. Since he seemed speechless she then placed both fists on her hips and continued. "Well sorry to disappoint, but I meant friendship 'love', just like you said."

Rex opened his mouth to say something but he felt like he was being attacked at all angles right now. "W- Ah-... Of course I didn't think that!" he almost shouted. He lifted his fists up in a defensive stance like he was about to fight someone, but his face betrayed him with a blush.

Nia made a sly grin. "Hmm... Certainly doesn't seem that way... You're face is practically a tomato right now." she taunted. "Ugh! Whatever." Rex said then just turned to stomp away. "I'm goin' back to sleep!" he said and Nia simple stood there and watched him walk away.

When he seemed out of sight she let out a loud sigh. A blush that she was suppressing suddenly made itself very visible and was glad he took a while to get the conversation started, it gave her time to think about how to get out of it, though part of her wishes she didn't.

Looking down, she stared at the ground where Rex had been standing  _"There's already three of 'em... I'd only get in the way..."_ she told herself and then turned to look back up into the sky.

"I really do love you, Rex." she said under her breath, smiling. "So... I'll fight for you! To bring you, Pyra, and Mythra back together..." she then looked down and brought her hand up. She released small amount of healing energy and allowed it to flow around her hand. "This power of mine... It can defeat Malos... I know it!"


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, the group of them got out of bed and met up on the edge of town after saying their goodbyes to Corrine and a few of the children. Nia was still casually hanging around in her Blade form, which she's been enjoying for the most part.

"So, what do we do now?" she asked and turned to Rex. He was the one who seemed to have some kind of plan before they left the vault. "It's all well and good that we escaped, but we've got nothin' to show for it."

"Don't worry, I know where we have to go." Rex simply assured her. Azurda then popped out from his helmet. "Are you sure Rex? You know Pyra's location?"

"I think so." he said then closed his eyes and began to picture the scene in his head. "Near the World Tree... I see a rotting Titan." he then opened his eyes and smiled towards the group. "She's there."

"A rotting Titan? Could it be..." Mórag questioned and looked down in thought. "Tora then flapped his ears a bit. "What is it? Mórag knows such a place?" he asked and she continued. "Close by the World Tree... Against the side of the Great Void... I've heard there's a Titan known as the Cliffs of Morytha."

Dromarch looked up at her. "Morytha... That name sounds familiar..." he said as he tried to collect his thoughts on the name. "Lady Mórag, there are tales... Tales of a 'land of the dead'. And the cliffs that lead into its depths..."

Mórag nodded. "Yes, indeed. The Land of Morytha... A place no living soul has ever witnessed." she said and looked up towards the World Tree. The rest of the group also turned to look over and there was a pause before she finished.

"Well then... We've got our work cut out for us."

* * *

**Time Skip to Mor Ardain**

Mórag used some of her influence in Mor Ardain to obtain a flying vessel for them all to travel on. It was quite easy to in fact, it seemed her brother, the Emperor gave everyone the order to give them whatever they need.

Nia was currently in her Human form as she still felt awkward to be out and about in a big city while being a Blade. She looked up and grinned at the ship before them. "I gotta say Mórag, lettin' the water run under the bridge with ya' is really startin' to pay off."

Mórag let out a light chuckle as she remembered their little disputes a while back. They could have been enemies if things went differently. "This is nothing. In fact, I still owe you a great debt for saving the Emperor."

"O- oh, no. It was nothin', really." Nia nervously stuttered and brought her hand up to wave it off.  _"If anything, he got hurt because I didn't use my power to begin with..."_  she kept that to herself though.

Rex stepped up to Mórag. "So, when're we ready to set out?" he asked. The Inquisitor turned over to look at the guard standing at the bridge of their ship. He made a salute and stood at attention. "This vessel has the finest crew Mor Ardain could ask for. We can set out at a moments notice."

"Thank you." Mórag told the guard then turned back to Rex. "There you have it, is everyone ready to depart?" she asked. Rex nodded then turned to the rest of the group. They all seemed ready, each giving their own nod or hop in Poppi's case. Rex turned back to Mórag "Alright then, let's go save Pyra and Mythra!"

* * *

**On the Vessel**

It was going to be about a days journey to reach the cliffs, so everyone scattered about on the ship to rest or prepare in their own way. Rex was spending most of his time speaking to each of them for now.

Mórag made sure to be close to the pilots room while looking out one of the windows with Brighid by her side. Tora seemed to be working on something in one of the storage rooms with Poppi. Zeke and Pandoria were just messing around all across the ship, Rex would see them move to a different spot every 10 minutes. Dromarch and Azurda were in one of the corners speaking about history and past events. It was times like this that he missed having Pyra and Mythra around the most, when everyone were in pairs talking to one another... Which happened a lot considering everyone here was a Driver and Blade.

But then again there was Nia... Who he couldn't find for some reason. He thought for sure she'd be hanging around with Dromarch but when Rex asked, he said that Nia wanted to be alone for some reason.

" _The ship's not that big... Where could she be?"_  He thought and began to look for her, asking anyone he passed by to ask if they noticed her. "Lady troubles, ehh Chum?" Rex turned around, knowing who spoke to him. No one else calls him 'Chum' after all.

Pandoria didn't seem to be with him right now. "Oh, Zeke... Wait wha?" he asked after his question registered. Zeke walked over while laughing aloud and hooked his left arm around Rex and punched his shoulder with his right fist. "I'm just saying, you've been quite the lady killer lately." This was one conversation that Rex would really rather not have right now, especially with what happened a couple days ago at Fonsett.

"I.. Uh... I dunno what you mean." Rex said and then ducked a bit to get out of Zekes hook. "There's nothin' like that goin' on." he said without making eye contact, though an irritated expression was plastered on his face.

Crossing his arms, Zeke shook his head. "C'mon Rex, lighten up, we're both men aren't we?" Rex let out a low groan and turned to look up at Zeke.  _"He is another guy... And he's older than me... Maybe I could ask..."_

Feeling uncomfortable, Rex started to scratch the back of his head as his eyes darted back a forth between the floor and the wall as he tried to actually ask the question. "Uh.. Zeke... What does it mean when a girl tells you.. Th- that they.. Well... Uh..." he was having trouble getting the last couple of works out.

"Love you?" Zeke finished for him. Rex froze for a second and just nodded, then lowered his hand back to his side. "Oh~ This about what Nia said in the vault a few days ago.~" Rex just nodded again. "So that's what's gotten you so down in the dumps lately!" Zeke announced as if discovering the final piece of the puzzle.

Rex made a surprised expression and looked up at Zeke. "I- I'm not.. Ugh, it's just... In the moment I went and thought she meant it in just a 'friend' kinda way... But... After thinking about it..." he paused for a moment.

"You think she meant it romantically then?" Zeke asked and brought his hand up to his chin in a thinking expression. "W- well... I actually asked her that back at Fonsett and she said she didn't..." he sounded a mix of confused and a little sad. "So then you think she's lying about it?" Zeke asked again.

Rex just shook his head. "No... Well, maybe... I dunno... But what's bugging me is..." he let out a low groan and had an uncomfortable look on his face as he stared at the ground. "I.. Don't know if  _ **I**_ think of it in just a 'friend' kinda way..."

Zeke widened his eyes in surprise. It seems that Rex was finally starting to grow up a little. "Whew, I gotta say Chum, it takes alotta guts to actually admit something like that." He then hooked his arm around Rex once again and lifted his other hand up to count with his fingers. "Let's see... Considering Pyra was first... Is this your second crush? No, perhaps third taking Mythra into consideration..."

Rex's face lit up like a candle when Zeke brought that up. "Wh- wha?!" Rex yelped and pushed Zekes arm away and took a few steps back. "Relax lover boy, I'm only teasing." Zeke laughed but Rex only had a annoyed look while glaring at him.

Zeke crossed his arms and had a more seriously look on his face now. It made Rex lower his guard and let go of the annoyance. "Look, Rex, if you've got something to say then you should go and say it. No one can do it for you and if you don't when you want to then you might regret it later." Rex opened his mouth but he couldn't think of anything to say to that. Zeke closed his eyes and smiles. "I mean, Nia knew that so in the heat of the moment she ignored everything telling her to stop and bravely confessed her feelings, just like she wanted to!" Before Rex could even get embarrassed, Zeke opened his eyes and grinned widely "Don't you think she deserves to be told your feelings as well?"

That last bit stopped Rex before he could retort.  _"She.. Deserves to know my feelings...?"_ He thought back to the other night when they spoke at Fonsett.  _"I didn't tell her anything... I just got embarrassed and acted like a stupid kid..."_  he looked down at the ground, feeling a bit ashamed. Zeke noticed he looked a little upset after that.

"Well, don't worry  _too_  much. You're young, You've got all the time in the world for this kind of stuff." he tried to assure him, but they both knew that his situation was far different than normal teens his age.

Pandoria suddenly appeared and grappled Zeke from behind with a headlock. "There you are!" Zeke made a very dramatic yelp and lifted his hands up to grab her arm coiled around his neck. Rex snapped out of it and looked up to see what was happening. "P-P-Pandy? Fancy meeting you here!" She suddenly jerked her arm having Zeke make a choking sound. "You think you can just leave me after raiding the whole kitchen?!"

" _There's a kitchen?"_  Rex thought idly

Zeke laughed a little but seemed to be a bit afraid "Oh c'mon now, you're over reacting!" Pandoria growled in annoyance and squeezed her headlock harder "I had to clean up the whole mess YOU made! Nia even ended up helping!"

Rex gasped and quickly tried to get a word in before they started bickering further. "You saw Nia? Could you tell me where she went?" Pandoria looked up to face Rex. "Oh her? I think she was heading towards the Hull." Rex nodded. "Thank you!" he said then ran passed the two of them.

Zeke spread his arms out towards Rex to try to grab him but failed miserably. "W- wait! Chum, you're not going to leave a comrade alone like this are you?!"but it seemed to fall on deaf ears. Pandoria gritted her teeth "Now then, where were we..." Zeke squinted his eyes and whined, looking like he was about to cry.

* * *

**A few minutes later**

Rex got to the back of the ship and walked up a set of stairs. There weren't many places Nia could be back here so he decided to check the sides first and work his way around. He walked across a curved hallway that coiled itself around the vessel and luckily spotted Nia looking out the window. He was about to get her attention but she noticed him first.

"Rex? What're you doin' here?" she asked when he started to approach her. "Well... Looking for you." he said with a grin and scratched the back of his head. He didn't actually think of anything to say once he found her. Nia narrowed her eyes and glared at him for a moment. "Er... I couldn't see you around and Dromarch said you wanted to be alone so I began looking for you."

Nia raised and eyebrow and looked a bit confused. "You mean you start lookin' for people who say they wanna be alone?" Rex looked at the ground while continuing to scratch his head. "Uhhh... Well..." he lowered his hand, looked up and just nodded with a smile. "Yeah."

Opening her mouth to say something, she ended up holding her stomach and letting out a loud laugh instead. "Haha, you're so stupid sometimes you know that?" she says and wipes a tear from her eye thanks to all the laughter. Rex just gritted his teeth and made a forced grin as she was laughing at him.

When she stopped the Gromotti placed one fist against her hip and smiled. "Well whatever, I was beginnin' to get lonely anyhow." she said and turned to look back out the window. Rex did the same and they were both staring out into the clouds for a few moments.

"It's pretty crazy, huh?" he broke the silence and looked at Nia. She turned to him as well and cocked her head to the side. "How do you mean?" she asked, interested in where he was going to go with that. "Well a few weeks ago I was just a small-time Salvager trying to get by on scraps while living on Gramps' back." He then spread his arms out as if gesturing to everything around them at once. "Now look! You, me, Gramps, and all our allies. Are on a flying ship sanctioned by the Mor Ardain Emperor himself to go save our friend and stop an evil plan!" He lowered his arms and and happily grinned. "It's... Well..."

"Pretty remarkable..." she finished for him and smiled back. Rex nodded in agreement. "When I joined Torna... I never imagined my life would change as much as it has." she then looked back out the window to watch the clouds pass by. "I'm glad I got captured when I did, glad Jin saved me, and glad I joined Torna. If I hadn't, I would never had met any of you." she paused for a moment and brought her hand up to where her Core Crystal would be if she was in her Blade form. "I'd never have found my way if I hadn't."

"Nia-" Rex wanted to say more but Nia cut him off before he could. "Rex, can I get something off my chest?" she asked and looked down a bit. Rex closed his mouth and nodded. "Sure, anything."

Squinting her eyes, Nia looked a bit uncomfortable as she tried to speak. "I want to apologize..." Rex looked a bit surprised when she said that of all things. "Huh? Apologize for what? You haven't done anything wrong." She shook her head and then turned towards him while lowering her hand. "But I have. I've had this power of mine since we met, but I..." she looked down and struggled to get it out. "I just kept letting people in front of me die..." Rex widened his eyes and was too shocked to say anything meaningful.

"Vandham, Fan la Norne, I could have saved the Emperor from having to jump in front of that attack..." she looked back up at him. "I- I even just lef-" before she could finish Rex grabbed her shoulders and gave her a light shake, surprising her.

"None of that matters!" he nearly shouted. She noticed he had a bit of the frown on his face. Rex lowered his hands from her shoulders and continued. "Nia, listen." he said, looking as determined as ever. "No one blames you for the things you haven't done, and everyone's only grateful for the things you have done." Nia's eyes widened as she opened her mouth in shock. What he said made her feel a tremendous amount of weight just fall off her shoulders.

"Okay?" Nia blinked and realized she was just standing there. After a moment longer she nodded. "... Okay... Thanks..." she smiled but knew that it didn't truly make up for anything.

Rex took a few steps back and gestured her to follow. "C'mon, let's go talk to the others." Nia smiled and nodded. "Alright." she said and followed him as they both headed back to the main room.

" _Don't you think she deserves to be told your feelings as well?"_

Zekes voice flashed inside Rex's head as they were leaving. He realized he hadn't actually said anything about his original reason for finding her.

" _Well, don't worry too much. You're young, You've got all the time in the world for this kind of stuff."_

He remembered that part as well and turned to glace at Nia who was now walking beside him.  _"I don't think tellin' her anything now would mean much..."_  he then looked forward and grinned with determination sparkling in his eyes.

" _First things first, we have to rescue Pyra and Mythra!"_


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was actually an annoying chapter to write because half of is is just stuff that happened in the game and didn't need to be changed since it was already pretty good while fitting the story. I did try to add as much as I could to it though without making any of the character OOC or making it last too long as I wanted to get passed this chapter and the next since that's when the story is going to be much more 'de-railed' from the video game.

**The Cliffs of Morytha**

They finally landed at the Cliffs. The flight even took a little shorter than expected since the wind was in their favor.

"So these are the Cliffs of Morytha." Rex stated as they all looked and examined the land before them. There was some grass, rocks, small mountains, but all of it gave off an ominous aura of decay.

Mórag nodded. "A rotting Titan, drifting aimlessly until death takes it." Nia now in her Blade form steps over and the others look at her. "I just remembered – Malos mentioned this place once. It's a shortcut to the World Tree."

Azurda popped out of Rex's helmet. "Makes sense." Rex turned his head and nodded. "Let's push on. Pyra and Mythra are definitely somewhere ahead!" the rest nodded as well and they all began walking through the cliffs pass. Luckily it was pretty straight forward, there wasn't any real 'path' but there wasn't much blocking their way either, aside from some monsters or various animals.

Nia was keeping pace a few steps behind Rex and kept her eyes on him the whole time.  _"He's so determined to rescue them..."_ she thought to herself and looked down at the ground as she walked.  _"I mean... We all are... But..."_ she sighed and looked up at Rex's back again. Memories of when they were recovering on Indol after Pyra was abducted.

" _I'm leaving."_

When Rex said that, she was so shocked at the time. She couldn't believe his spirit, the one she believed in, was broken after that one loss. Though luckily they managed to get him back on track, that was the moment when she realized Pyra and Mythra meant the world to him.

Her thoughts were slammed to a halt when Rex suddenly gasped and clenched the core crystal on his chest in pain. "Rex! Are you okay?!" Azurda asked in a bit of a panic. He didn't respond, just took a few deep breaths. "Rex?!" Azurda asked again.

"I... I'm... Fine..." he managed to choke out then tried to stand up straight. Nia was about to step forward and offer him some help but stopped short when Azurda spoke again. "Could it be... Pyra is in trouble?"

Nia lowered her eyes at that and lifted her hand over her core crystal. If there was one thing she felt jealous about more than anything, it was that bond Rex shared with Pyra and Mythra. It was so much more than a normal Driver and Blade. What's worse is it's a constant reminder that she chose to just walk away with Torna rather than heal him.

"But we have to hurry. I have a bad feeling about this." he said with a look of nervousness on his face. Nia closed her eyes then took a deep breath and lowered her hand.  _"Alright Nia, it's game time. I can't worry over this right now."_  she thought and pushed all these annoying feelings aside.  _"Just... Do it for Rex."_

Rex was the first one to take a step forward and keep moving, the rest followed.  _"I've never felt pain come directly from the crystal before..."_  he thought and lifted his arm up to see a light scar on it.  _"Usually it's just our injuries that're linked..."_ he then lowered his arm and looked forward.  _"Just what kind of pain is she feelin' right now?"_  he frowned and began to get a bit nervous at what they were going to find once they reach her.

* * *

**Balquors Ruins**

After about twenty more minutes of walking they found themselves at the entrance to some ruins. "C'mon let's go! We're almost there I can feel it!" Rex said to the others and started running into the ruins. Nia was right by his side followed by the others right behind them.

"You're finally here. I've been expecting you." A voice, Malos' voice specifically came from the opposite end of the broken down room they were in.

They all came to a stop and Nia glared towards the dark Aegis. "Malos." she acknowledged his presence. He immediately honed in on her appearance. "Your Core Crystal..." he made a light chuckle. "So you finally gave up your little human act."

"So are you looking for a place to belong, or are you just a fickle child who doesn't know what she wants?" he questioned. "Feh..." Nia simply turned her head and rolled her eyes. Rex however wanted to get straight to the point, plus he's been trying to not think about Nia for at least until they finish their rescue.

"Where's Pyra and Mythra?" he demanded but Malos just shrugged. "Hell if I know. She's probably dead by now." Rex then made a fist and lightly pounded on the Core Crystal in his chest. "I'm alive, she's alive." he told him, not budging. Nia flinched at that but hid it before anyone noticed.  _"Later, not now, later."_  she reminded herself.

Malos calmly closed his eyes and then opened them just to glare back at Rex. "Think whatever you like." he said and started walking forward. "But don't be mad at me. All I'm doing is reclaiming what was stolen from me."

Rex got angry and gritted his teeth followed by letting out a low growl. Malos stopped walking and opened his right hand palm up for a purple sword to appear in it. "You're never going to see her again." he said followed by a laugh. "You make me laugh, you know that?" he lifted his blade up and pointed it towards Rex. "Look at you, that salvager brat I picked up in Argentum." he then made a shrug and brought his sword back down to his side. "Standing here with the gall to challenge me?"

Rex couldn't stand being silent anymore and stepped forward. "Someone's gotta! We're not gonna lose to the likes of you!" Malos took another few steps forward and his sword began to glow as a strange symbol appeared on the large guard of the blade. "You did well to make it this far." he said then grinned, "But..." he then lifted his blade up and grabbed it with both hands. "You end here boy!" he shouted and purple electricity wrapped itself around the blade. Just a moment later, strange black energy erupted around them all originating from the floor.

They all reacted instantly. Zeke grabbed Pandoria's shoulder and they leaped away to the left with Dromarch right beside them. Mórag and Bighid didn't have much trouble avoiding the blast by jumping to the right. Rex and Nia both ran forward closer to Malos. Tora and Poppi ran away back towards the ruins entrance. They all managed to avoid the explosion, but what was left in its wake was pretty terrifying. Everything the blast touched was eradicated on the spot. The floor, even the earth under it was just gone leaving nothing but a large crater. Tora nearly fell in, but was saved by Poppi.

The battle only just started, but Zeke was already done with whatever Malos just pulled. "What the hell is this?!" he shouted and charged towards the dark Aegis, whipping his sword out from behind his back. Pandoria immediately started supplying him with as much power as she could and a yellow glow surrounded his body. He swung his blade down at Malos but he didn't even bother to dodge. Instead a black aura manifested itself as a sphere around his body and Zekes sword hit into it then slowly dissolved.

"Ugh!" he groaned and pulled back, staring at his now shortened blade. Nia quickly turned to him- "Watch it, Shellhead!" she said to grab his attention. "Malos's power will destroy anything it touches! It'll take your arm or your head right off!"

Zeke now took a few steps back and held his half-blade at the ready. "What?!" he had no clue how he was going to attempt to compete with something like that. "What're we gonna do?" Rex asked and turned to Nia.

Malos started to laugh at them all "Poor, helpless, little MAGGOTS!" he shouted and the black aura surrounding him grew to slowly engulf the entire area surrounding him.

"Whoa!" Zeke shouted as it hit him, almost expecting to die on the spot. But instead he was surrounded by a blue watery aura that shielded him from the blast which also restored his sword back to full size!

Upon realizing it didn't work Malos growled- "Nia!" he shouted and turned to her. "You!" he was now furious. Rex also looked over while her powers were activated in awe. "Nia..." he mumbled. Nia frowned and continued to shield Zeke. "I should have used this power earlier... But I was afraid... Afraid to go back to those days..." memories of being hunted down for being a Flesh Eater flashed through her mind for a moment. "Lives have been lost... Because I was afraid..." she closed her eyes and painfully turned down towards the ground as visions of Vandham and Fan La Norne occupied her mind now.

Rex kept looking at her and remembered their talk on the flight here.  _"So this is what she was talking about..."_  he thought and gritted his teeth. He didn't like how she was just blaming all of it on herself.

"Nia-" he began but before he could say anything more Nia looked back up with full confidence in her eyes. "But..." she then turned to look at Rex and smiled at him. "Someone taught me that I don't have to be afraid." Rex opened his mouth and stared back at her until she turned away to face forward. "So now I get it! My life has a purpose!"

Her aura surrounding Zeke then exploded, taking Malos's dark aura with it. He lifted up his sword to shield himself from the small explosion then grunted angrily and glared at Nia again. She glared right back at him. "Your power might destroy, Malos, but my power restores." she said and lifted her hand up for her sword to materialize in her hand to be pointed at him. "As long as my friends have the will to live, that's all I need." All of them were now turned to face Nia as she explained their situation. "There is no wound you can inflict that I cannot heal!" she proclaimed and arched her sword. "Blade weapons too. They were born from us and can be healed just the same."

Nia turned to her right. "Rex! Everyone!" she extended her sword out in front of Rex. "It's time to end this!" she announced. Rex looked down at her sword and then back up at Nia. Everything that she just accomplished in the past minute... He thought it was amazing, mesmerizing even. "Yeah!" he shouted with a smiled while grabbing her sword then getting into his fighting stance. Nia lifted both her hands up and began to allow her powers to flow into Rex.

And thus the battle of destruction and healing began. The Nine of them versus just Malos which unfortunately was more than less a fair fight despite their incredible numbers advantage. Anytime Malos would hurt them or destroy their weapons, Nia would immediately heal and repair them all. It was just going back and forth like this for nearly a half hour now with neither side making any progress towards victory. This was certainly a first for Malos as he seemed to grow more and more impatient with each clash.

"ARG! I'm gonna kill you!" he shouted and charged forward. Nia quickly grabbed her sword from Rex's hand and charged forward as well. "Don't you know when to give up, Malos?" The two of them lifted their swords up and swung them at the same time just for their auras to clash in the center of the ruins, their elements canceling themselves out again. But this time their blades stayed locked together as their auras kept pushing against each other.

Meanwhile Rex and the others were just standing there a few yards away from their clash just staring into their display. Clenching his fists, Rex felt like he couldn't do anything to truly help in this scenario. Malos was too strong and Nia was the only one holding them up for this long.

Malos, while surrounded in his dark aura let out a growl "Gah! That's an annoying power!" he shouted. Nia kept pushing against his sword "So sorry." she said sarcastically and then started to push a bit harder. "You've gotta be stopped. You're a menace to the entire world!"

"Is that so? Oh you sweet-talker, Nia." he taunted and then flared his aura to even higher heights. He then easily whacked her away with his sword and she went flying backwards. "Nia!" Rex shouted and charged forward to grab her while she was tumbling along the floor so she could recollect herself. She gave him a nod then stood up and glared back at Malos while allowing her energy to heal any wounds she might have gained.

"Don't you see how weak you are?!" he ask her and swung his sword up to rest it on his shoulder. "Heal all you want, but you can't even scratch me." He grinned and took a few steps forward. "Where are your claws, kitty?" he taunted again.

Nia huffed and closed her eyes. Upon opening them up she grinned, baring her fangs. "Very well. Then I'll show you!" she lifted her sword up to Rex again. "Rex! Help me out!" he looked over to her and nodded confidently "You got it!" he said and Nia lifted her sword up between the two of them "Follow my lead!" he instructed. "Okay!" He answered and grabbed her sword. With the two of them holding onto it, Nia allowed her power to flow between the two of them and a yellow aura began to emit and waft off around them. They then both lifted the sword over their heads "Here goes!" Nia shouted.

Water began to spiral around the blade until it grew big enough to engulf the two of them in it. Slowly the whirlpool of water shrunk until it was just surrounding the blade again, but the power felt incredible. "Take this!" they both shouted and swung the sword down, sending a powerful water slice which flung itself straight at Malos.

The Dark Aegis lifted his blade up and swung it, cutting it in two and dispersing it. However it didn't disappear, instead remnants of the water used started circling around Malos. At first his was surprised but when nothing happened he just chuckled and stood up casually. "What? Is that it?" he asked them. But he didn't notice that some of the water floating around him started to enter into his body. He let out a loud single laugh. "I hardly even felt it." but just as he finished speaking, he glowed purple a little and he felt pain across his entire body. "Ugh... Gah...!" he groaned in pain and nearly fell over from it. Taking a few steps back, he lifted his arm up just for it to almost explode by bulking up server times large then it was supposed to. Followed by the rest of his body doing the same. "AAAAGHHH!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Nia... Wha- what have you done to me?" he asked, groaning in pain. Nia started slowly walking forward towards him. "I altered the replication rate of your body's cells." she stated clearly. "Even an immortal Blade is made from the same stuff as any other bein'. I used that to my advantage."

"Ugh... This is why... Jin recruited you..." he said in between the groaning and then looked up to glare at her. "He saw that power..." Nia shrugged "Who knows? Why don't you ask him yourself?" Malos was now furious and let out a loud roar. He tried flaring up his dark aura and swinging his sword but it didn't accomplish anything. He simply flailed around while stumbling backwards as blood gushed from parts of his body.

"I've got just one thing to say to you." Nia said while she watched the sorry sight. "The place where I belong..." she began and turned toward Rex followed by looking further back at the rest of her friends. "Is right here."

"N- Niaaaaaa!" Malos shouted before making one last tumble backwards and falling down off the cliff. Nia walked up to the spot he fell off of and looked down. "See ya."

* * *

**Post Malos Fight**

Mórag suggested that it would probably be a good idea to take a short break after that fight against Malos. Sure, they had someone who could heal their injuries but their stamina wasn't limitless. They all agreed, especially since they were still expecting to need to fight Jin next and they didn't have anyone who could counteract his lightspeed like they could with Malos's dark powers.

"Alright everyone, let's take a break." Mórag said and looked over to Rex. "Sorry, I'd like to say only five minutes... But I think ten would be best." she said, knowing Rex wanted to continue as soon as possible. Fighting against an Aegis really banged them up more than she'd like to admit. Rex nodded in agreement "Thanks but I know. We're in a hurry but everyone should be ready before we keep moving."

Zeke and Pandoria sat on the ground and leaned their backs against each other, catching their breaths while Nia was pestering them with Dromarch close by and Azurda resting on top of him. Apparently she had to heal Zeke the most for constantly running in and getting his weapon destroyed. Meanwhile Tora had Poppi sat down so he could perform some maintenance on her just in case something got hit out of place. Mórag leaned against a wall with Brighid close by, they seemed to be talking strategy for when we'll need to fight Jin.

Rex smiled at his group of friends then turned around and walked over to the cliff Malos fell off of. He peaked over the edge to see that it was certainly a long way down, part of him wondered if the dark Aegis survived.  _"He probably did... Hopefully we won't see him for a while though..."_  he thought and then sat on the ground and crossed his legs, staring out off the cliff. He thought about their fight just now and how Nia pulled most of their weight. He could tell she was trying really hard... Though going by what she said, she still had some guilt over hiding her powers until now. He let out a sigh and continued to look out into the clouds "I wonder if there's a way I could make her feel better..." he mumbled under his breath.

"Hm? You're not feelin' okay?" he heard Nia's voice right behind him. "Wha!" he yelped and turned his head to see Nia walking up to him. She knelt down beside him and lifted her hands up. "I could heal you, just tell me where."

Rex awkwardly grinned "No, I'm alright. I was just talking to myself." he assured her. She lowered her hands then sat down next to him. "Oh, alright." They both stared off the cliff for a bit. Rex ended up continuing to think about their recent battle. How Nia activated her powers to save them all and how she was able to clash with Malos multiple times just to get right back up. He told himself he didn't want to think about Nia too much until Pyra and Mythra were rescued but that was becoming increasingly more difficult.

He slowly turned his head to look at Nia sitting next to him. She was just staring out into the clouds like he was a second ago. Her white hair, those ears which were happily propped up, and she always had those little fangs. The image of her when she activated her powers and saved Zeke from getting wiped out by Malos flashed through his head. She looked so... so...

"You look amazing." he said unconsciously aloud. He didn't even realize he said it until Nia made a very delayed reaction.

Nia kept staring forward even after he spoke that, not completely registering what he said. Her heart skipped a beat "H- huh?!" she yelped and quickly turned to look at him, eyes wide and a blush plastered on her cheeks.

" _Huh?!"_ Rex's eyes also widened in surprise and he began to panic. "I- I mean... Uhh..." he quickly turned away and started to look all over the ground as if looking for the physical words to say. "I- I mean y- your powers... They looked amazing!" Nia's mouth slowly dropped and she couldn't come up with anything to say. She just turned away, trying to hide her blush as she felt a bit dizzy and just stared at this one rock at the ground. "I- I- I see." she mumbled but had an uncontrollable smile on her face. Rex quickly just stopped talking and turned to look in the opposite direction as her while gritting his teeth and blushing.  _"Gah! What's wrong with me?! I can't believe I said that!"_ he yelled at himself.

This awkward silence between the two of them lasted for about two minutes. Neither one of them knew what to say afterwards.

" _Don't you think she deserves to be told your feelings as well?"_

Zekes words echoed in his head for probably the hundredth time since he said them.  _"Wait... Is what I said bad then? Shouldn't I just come out and say how I feel?"_  he frowned and nodded to himself with determination. Rex quickly spun around to look at Nia just to see she was about to tap him on the shoulder. They both froze for a couple seconds then flinched back.

"U- uh... Nia..." he mumbled but couldn't bring himself to say anything more then just her name. "R- Rex..." she seemed to be in the same boat. This was getting annoying for him so he decided to change the mood. Gritting his teeth, Rex lifted his head up then headbutted his Anchor grapple. Nia flinched and opened her mouth in shock. "What are you doin'?!" she quickly asked and he lifted his head up groaning. "Owwwwww..." he started to rub the new bump on his forehead. Though his hand was quickly brushed aside by Nia's glowing one and he felt her soft touch on his wound.

He gasped and looked up at her face while she healed it. She made eye contact with him for just a split second before blinking and focusing back on her healing. "Y- you're such an idiot, ya' know that? I mean who hurts themselves?" After about ten seconds the bruise was gone and she started to retract her hand but Rex quickly reached out and grabbed it.

"Eep" Nia made a very uncharacteristic noise and looked down at him grabbing her hand. "Wh- what're you...?" she asked and he let out a sigh followed by leaning a little closer. Her eyes widened and her breath became much more unstable.  _"I- is he seriously going to...?"_ her thought was cut short when he spoke.

"Nia-" he began and she calmed down a little to see him staring straight at her. He seemed rather calm at the moment, maybe the head bashing worked? He cleared his throat. "Uhm... A- after we rescue Pyra and Mythra... There's something I wanna tell you."

She blinked a few times and just stared at him. "Huh?" she mumbled. He let go of her hand and turned away while starting to scratch the back of his head. "It's just... Something that has to be said after they're safe, okay?" he said and looked back at her.

Nia kept staring at him with her mouth parted, curious on what it was he wanted to tell her. "Well... Alright." she said with a nod. Rex nodded "Thanks..." and the two of them continued to stare at each other for a few seconds with Rex smiling and Nia looking as confused and nervous as ever.

"Friends! Tora and others ready to leave!" the two of them were suddenly snapped out of their trance and looked over towards the rest of their group. They were all standing up and seemed ready to keep moving. Rex nodded and yelled back "Alright!" then stood up. He looked back down at Nia and offered her his hand. "Ready to go?" he asked and she looked up at his smiling face then down at the hand he was offering. She smiled as well and nodded "Yeah, let's go save our friends."

With that she grabbed his hand and he helped her up. The two of them then ran towards the rest of the group and they continued to walk through the Cliffs of Morytha.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so I finally got to where I wanted to get to, now that both the Jin and Malos fights are over I can start doing more story related changes.

After running along the path that left the ruins they fought Malos in, the group finally found themselves before a large stone gateway. Mórag spoke up for them to stop then walked up to the opening. She rubbed the edge of it and looked back at the group. "This was recently opened. We're close, be ready for anything." They all nodded then ran through the gate and in just another minute they saw what looked like Jin standing with two Artificial Blades next to him.

"PYRA!" Rex shouted and charged forward with the rest of his team. He saw Jin move out of the way for Pyra to come in view. She seemed unconscious and was being held up from her arms by the Artificial Blades.

They all stopped running then Rex gasped and looked nervous. "P- Pyra?!" he said and stared at her in worry. Jin decided now was a good time to speak up- "Ah, you missed the highlight. We already have everything we need from her."

Rex gritted his teeth and tore his gaze away from Pyra to glare at Jin. "Jin! What did you do to her?!" he demanded. However someone else decided to answer for him. "I already told you." Rex and the others then turned around to see Malos slowly walking up in perfect health. "I'm just trying to get back what was stolen from me five centuries ago."

"Malos! You're alive?!" Nia questioned in shock. Malos laughed before responding. "You didn't think you could put me down that easily, did you?" He continued to walk around the group and over towards Jin and Pyra "I am an Aegis!" he smirked "Don't underestimate me." he looked over at Nia, enjoying her shocked expression. "I can't believe you fell for it." she angrily glared at him followed by a growl.

"You did this to her?!" Rex grabbed Malos's attention, watching as he just casually strolled passed them. Malos let out a chuckle. "She betrayed herself as an Aegis, forming a bond with a piece of Human trash." he then turned his head to look at Rex. "She tried so pathetically hard to hold on to her memories of you." He kept walking until he was right next to Pyra. "She put up a brave little fight." he said and then quickly turned towards Rex, placing his hand upon his chest and acting out as Pyra. "Please don't steal my memories!" he whined then stood up straight. "Cute stuff like that."

Rex clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, glaring at Malos in anger as he just kept going on and on. "Sorry, boy. You came to this desolate place for nothing." he said and turned around. "Do you really want this useless husk?" he asked and then grabbed the back of Pyras Collar. "Go ahead and take it!" he shouted and ripped her body from the Artificial Blades just to throw her at Rex.

"Pyra!" Rex yelled and ran over to her body as it slammed and slid across the stone ground. He leaned down and looked at her. She seemed motionless. "Pyra! Pyra!" he said again and again, lifting her body up in his arms to get a better look. She wasn't dead, but showed no signs of being 'alive' either. "I'm so sorry... Pyra... Mythra..." he said with a look of guilt and sadness. "We made it this far... But..." he lifted her body up to give her a hug.

Nia watched the scene and felt awful. "Rex..." she mumbled and had a pained expression. She felt a mixed emotion of feeling horrible for Rex but also sad seeing him care about them so much, which she actually felt even more guilt thanks to.

Rex gently placed Pyra on the ground and stood up, turning towards Jin and Malos. "Nia." he said without even looking at her. She nodded- "Got it." and then took a few steps forward to get closer to him.  _"Now's not the time to feel upset... He needs your power more than anything right now."_  she told herself.

"Dromarch, take care of Pyra." he told him and he nodded as well. "Understood." he said and walked over to her then bit down on her collar and slowly dragged her away from the coming battle.

"What's this? I thought you'd start bawling and charge at me." Malos chuckled as he continued to taunt Rex. "What a big boy." he said in a mocking tone. Rex started to walk forward, ignoring is provocations but looked down in disappointment. "Stupid..." he mumbled. After a brief pause Malos looked a bit confused. "Eh?" he mumbled.

"I was stupid." Rex said more bluntly. "I didn't understand Pyra and Mythra's feelings." he took a breath and looked up at the World Tree. "Though we were destined to follow different paths, I tried to walk together... I walked in the shadow of the Aegis's light... Blindly walking my own path, while she walked alone."

Nia listened intently, wanting to hear everything he had to say. It was the first time she was hearing his feelings on this matter and wanted to understand them more than anything. Though Malos didn't seem to care what Rex was going on about. "What're you blathering about?" he asked but Rex didn't seem to pay him much mind. "So, I might be stupid..." he paused and looked back down at Malos, determination shining in his eyes "But I've made a decision."

Malos held back a laugh. "Oho! What have you decided?" he asked and gestured his hand out. "You've come all this way, I'll hear you out."

Rex glared at him. "It's obvious." he said and took another step forward. "I'll crush you into oblivion, and take Pyra and Mythra to Elysium!" he announced and Malos let out another laugh. "Crush us? Me and Jin? You couldn't even take Jin on your own!" he then lifted his sword up and rested it on his shoulder. "And on top of that, I've regained control of all my Aegis powers!" He leaned forward- "You're doomed, boy."

Rex shook his head. "I'm not." he said bluntly so Malos lifted his sword up to point over at Pyra. "That thing is just a used-up shell. You can't rely on it to save you, boy." the dark Aegis said and then placed his sword back resting on his shoulder.

"But I now understand." Rex retorted. "What Pyra and Mythra wanted. And I understand what I have to do to make it happen! What it means to be Driver and Blade!" He then got into his fighting stance and reached behind his waist to grab Nia's sword.

"Everyone, stand with me one more time!" he shouted so they all grabbed their weapons as well and got ready to fight. "Let's get Pyra back, and go to Elysium!" he yelled while lifting Nia's sword up to swing it down in front of himself. Nia herself lifted both her hands up and began sending her powers to Rex.  _"This is it! I have to make sure Rex wins!"_

This was a much rougher fight than when they fought Malos alone earlier. Jin was able to dash across the battle in an instant and attack anyone at any time. Plus there were plenty of times when Jin and Malos decided to attack Rex and Nia together so they were being pressed the most. It was difficult for Nia to heal everyone, keep Rex in the fight, and avoid getting hit herself.

Mórag tried her hardest to keep up with Jin, but he was easily able to get around her and attack whoever he pleased. Zeke on the other hand tried to keep Malos busy but whenever their sword clashed, his would always be erased if Nia wasn't restoring it. Tora and Poppy tried their hardest to simply get in their way whenever they moved or changed targets but it didn't buy much time. The combination of Jin and Malos was just too much to handle, even with their numbers.

Finally, fatigue was beginning to weigh them down and Malos decided to end this. He quickly closed in on Rex and clashed their swords together, overpowering and knocking him away from Nia and the rest of them. However a green glow hovered around him and all the wounds he received were immediately healed. Malos groaned. "Have I mentioned how irritating that ability is?!" he shouted and turned his head to glare at Nia.

She was holding her hands up towards Rex while healing his wounds and nodded. "You did mention that." she confirmed. Then she pushed her powers a bit harder to heal everyone else but just as she did, her powers went away. "Ugh! Wh- what?!" he groaned and fell on her knee. The air around her was frigid and she could see her own breath when she breathed. Little white sparkles could be seen hovering in the air across their entire fight. "This... It's ice?" she questioned and then realization hit her so she looked to her right. "Jin... You?"

Malos grinned and looked at Jin as well "But of course. This is Jin's true power." he said and turned back to Nia. "You may have awesome regenerative powers... But everything becomes futile once you get down to absolute zero."

Mórag felt a chill run across her entire body as she shivered. "A- absolute zero?" she groaned and also fell on her knee from the freezing air.  _"They can counter Nia's power? This isn't good."_ victory was starting to look like a dream.

Malos swung his sword. "While they're vulnerable!" he said and looked at his partner. "Let's do it Jin!" he shouted and rushed towards Nia. Jin on the other hand decided to turn and go for Rex who was separated from the rest of the group.

They both attacked their targets at the same time. Nia quickly dodge rolled out of the way and Dromarch tossed her his battle rings. She caught them and blocked Malos's next attack. Rex was able to deflect one of Jin's strikes and then managed to block the next few but was forced on the defensive.

Nia blocked another strike from Malos but was too concerned for Rex to go on the offensive even if she could. "Rex!" she shouted and tried to get closer to him but was knocked away by Malos and tumbled on the ground.  _"Tch... I can't link with him from this far away!"_

Mórag got off the ground and charged towards Nia and Malos's fight. When Malos swung his sword at Nia to finish her off, Mórag managed to make it in time and used both her swords to block the strike. "Mórag?!" Malos said in shock, he wasn't expecting her to be able to interfere in her current state.

Zeke then leaped into the air and did a vertical slash at Malos from behind. "This is getting us nowhere!" he shouted, hoping for a hit but Malos simply turned and lifted his other hand up to whack Zeke away with dark energy. Mórag grunted and gritted her teeth while trying to push back against his sword. "GO!" she shouted and glanced at Nia who was currently still on the ground. Nia nodded her head and lifted herself back up. "Thanks!" she shouted and started to run towards Rex's fight with Jin.

Tora then ran forward and pointed at Jin. "Poppy!" he shouted and Poppy suddenly lifted her drill up. "Take this!" she yelled and fired her large drill bit at Jin. He knocked Rex away first then easily whacked the drill away. "Trash!" he shouted and swung his sword again, sending a shockwave in their direction which knocked them on the ground. "Poppy! Tora!" Rex yelled in concern. But he noticed Jin was attacking him again and had to block another one of his attacks. He was pushed back a good few feet and noticed Pyra was directly behind him now. He didn't even notice he was being pushed around this much until now. " _Dammit..."_ he thought and glared at Jin.

"It can't end like this!" he shouted and charged towards Jin to swing his sword and attack him for a change. But Jin easily avoided or deflected every single one of his swings. In the middle of his exhange with Jin, Rex began to hear Pyras voice in his head.

" _Enough, Rex! Forget about us!"_

" _Our power has done nothing but bring you pain. It would be better if such a power didn't exist!"_

" _We told you we wanted to go to Elysium... But the reason we wanted to go there..."_

" _... Was to beg our father to let is die._

" _For the sake of the world, abandon us!"_

Gritting his teeth, Rex kept blocking Jins strikes and spoke up at the same time. "Abandon you?! When you are injured, I feel you pain!" he then managed to push Jin's sword back for once. "When you feel pain, I feel the sorrow in your heart!"

Malos was hearing Rex talk to himself from across the battlefield. "What the hell? Has he finally cracked?" he laughed. Everyone ignored him though and Nia was finally getting back to Rex. "You really think I can just standby and watch someone I  **love**  suffer?!" he shouted out.

Nia froze in place.  _"Love?"_  she questioned and couldn't bring herself to take another step. She didn't know why, but it felt different than when he said it in the vault a few days ago. This was probably the worst possible time for this, but when Rex said that her thoughts became a jumbled mess.

" _You can make it to Elysium with or without us!"_

"What would be the point of that?!" Rex asked their voice and then swung Nia's sword against Jin's once again. "I swore to you... We're going to Elysium together!" he was now pushing against Jin's sword. "That's a promise!" he shouted and pushed Jin away.

He then lowered his sword and shouted out into the sky. "We'll find out your place in this world! Find out where we're headed... And see what the future holds!"

Jin was starting to get tired of all this banter between Rex and the two he couldn't even see. Was Rex truly going insane? Or was Pyra and Mythra still around somehow? He didn't know but he knew it was time to end this.

Jin got into his stance and a white glow emitted off his entire body. He leaped forward and swung his sword at the now defenseless Rex just shouting into the sky. Nia finally snapped out of her thoughts when she saw Rex was about to get slashed by Jin. "REX!" she shouted and leaped forward to get in front of him. As if in slow motion, Rex opened his eyes from hearing his name to see Jin's sword sliced downward and cut into Nia's Core Crystal. The force of the hit made a strong shockwave, pushing her into Rex's arms and forcing them both to tumble onto the ground.

Rex quickly collected himself and sat up while holding Nia in his arms. "NIA!" he shouted but her eyes were closed and her breathing was ragged. He looked down at her Core Crystal to see that a large chunk of it was now missing. Small lights began to emit from Nia's body, signaling that her time was about to come to an end. "Wh- what the hell! Why'd you do that?!" he asked then closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.

Jin lowered his sword and stared down at the two of them. "This is the third time, no?" he asked. Rex opened his eyes and looked up at Jin. "Huh?" he was too shocked to say anything else. "First time was that Mercenary, second was Fan La Norne, … Now there's Nia." he swung his blade again, sending an air compressed shockwave that wasn't strong enough to hurt, but pushed them pretty hard. "Everyone who joins you, everyone who you care about, they'll die. Just like this."

Rex's eyes widened and his mouth slowly dropped. What the hell could he say to that?! His eyes slowly looked over to the others as they were struggling with just defending themselves against Malos. From watching the fight he knew they were going to end up losing in just a couple of minutes. He then looked behind himself at Pyra, still memory-less and unconscious. Then finally he looked down at Nia, who was now shining much more brightly. He squinted his eyes in pain "No... Nia... Why..." he whined and tears began to fall from his eyes.

"Now die." he heard Jin say and closed his eyes, ready for the worst. But instead of feeling any cut, he felt a hand lightly slap him on his cheek. He looked down to see Nia with her eyes barely opened and smiling at him. Jin actually stopped his attack when Nia came too, though Rex didn't even notice that at the time. "... Why...?" she coughed but kept trying to smile at him. "Do you even need to ask?" Her hand trembled against his face and tears were dripping from both their eyes now.

"You really think I can just standby and watch someone I love suffer?" she asked, mimicking what he said earlier. It made Rex shake to his very core, nearly every emotion he could think of was just rattling throughout his body. Then when her hand fell to her side, she slowly closed her eyes and said one final thing:

"Now... Win. Before... It's too late."

Rex gritted his teeth and lifted his hand up to try and rub the tears out of his eyes. He knew what she meant. Once Nia leaves, she won't be able to supply him with anymore power. "Fine. I'll win, Nia!" he then gently placed her on the ground, a couple feet away from Pyra and stood up. He gripped her sword and glared at Jin with tear-infested eyes. "I'll win!" he shouted and kicked off the ground, charging towards Jin.

Jin let out a sigh and stood still while Rex charged towards him. When he swung his sword, Jin easily deflected it. He continued to simply whack Rex's attacks away as if they were nothing. "Why!" Rex shouted and then swung again. "Just get hit!" he yelled as he missed. Every second that passed, Nia's power got weaker and weaker. By missing he was just wasting all the energy she was giving him.

Jin lifted his sword up after deflecting another one of Rex's attacks "It's over." he said and swung downward. Rex was too sad to show any fear and just swung his sword again, aiming for Jin but there was no way he was going to hit first.

* * *

Rex swung his sword but hit nothing, in fact Jin wasn't even standing in front of him anymore. "What?" he said aloud and Nia's sword suddenly vanished from his hand.

"Rex?"

He heard a familiar voice from directly behind him and turned around to see Nia groaning and slowly getting up off the ground. "Nia!" his heart skipped a beat and he ran over, helping her up. "Where are we...? Where's Jin? Malos?" she asked then remembered what she did and brought her hand up to her Core Crystal. It still felt like a piece of it was chipped away.  _"How am I still here?"_  she wondered.

"I dunno... One second I was fighting Jin, the next here we are." he said and looked around. They weren't even at the Ruins anymore. It was some kind of facility, Metal floors and walls, strange blue lights, and... "Whoa..." Rex mumbled and looked up to see a gigantic robot, half of it was black while the other white and green with the same Core Crystal as Pyra and Mythra at its center.

Nia then also turned around to see it and flinched at how huge is was. "What is that?!" she asked, not actually expecting an answer.

"That is our whole being."

Both Rex and Nia quickly turned to their side and saw Pyra and Mythra standing there. They both gasped and Rex took a step forward. "Y- you're okay?!" he said with a happy grin. Nia also smiled. "Thank goodness."

But Pyra simply shook her head and Mythra let out a sigh and decided to speak for them both. "Sorry, but I wouldn't really call this 'okay'." she said and looked a bit disappointed. Rex looked confused. "Huh? What do ya' mean? You're standing here aren't you?" he asked them and this time Pyra responded.

"We're here... But not at the same time, this is a vision we created using the last of our power before Malos stole our memories." Rex clenched his fist and brought it up. "Like hell! I'll take 'em back then!" he said and Pyra smiled. "I appreciate it Rex... But It's more complicated than that..."

"There's gotta be a way!" he told them, not accepting 'no' for an answer. Nia felt bad and looked over at him "Rex..." she mumbled. Mythra let out a sigh- "We don't have time for this. Our vision is slowing down both of your perceptions of time but it wont last forever." she then turned towards Nia and looked down at her broken Core Crystal then back up at her face "You're lucky you were still linked up with Rex when we brought him here, otherwise you'd be dead right now."

She flinched and gritted her teeth. Rex also turned to look at Nia and frowned- "Yeah! What was that about Nia! You can't just be jumpin' in like that!" he told her. Nia rolled her eyes. "Oh, I don't wanna be hearin' that from you!" she retorted. But before they could argue further, the entire place shook a little.

Rex and Nia spread there legs and stabilized themselves while looking around. "Wha?" Rex mumbled. Mythra let out another sigh. "Like I said, we don't have much time. The vision is beginning to unravel."

Both Pyra and Mythra then placed their hands on their Core Crystal and it glowed brightly. Pyra was the one that spoke up this time. "Nia, take good care of Rex." She said and smiled. "Huh? Wait, what?" Nia asked but suddenly darkness started to close in on them. The vision was really ending, in a few more moments Rex was going to be standing in front of Jin again, waiting to be struck down.

Rex lifted his hand up. "Wait! Hang on!" he tried to move, but his legs would budge for some reason. "Pyra! Mythra!" he shouted then gritted his teeth. It was obvious he wasn't going to be able to save them here, he knew that much. "I'll make another promise!" he shouted and the two of them opened there eyes to look at him, a little shocked. Nia also looked over, wondering what he was going to say. "I'll get to Elysium, find the Architect, and ask him to bring you back!" he announced. Nia smiled.  _"Rex... You're too kind for your own good..."_  she thought and decided to help him out. "Of course! If there's anyone that can bring you two back then it's the Architect!"

The two of them smiled and Pyra nodded. "I'll be looking forward to it, Rex, Nia." she said while tears manifested themselves around her eyes. For the first time in a long time the two of them wanted to live but just discovered that 'want' after they were already gone.  _"I really hope we get to see them again..."_ Pyra thought and Mythra nodded  _"Yeah... I'm sure it'd be fun."_

* * *

Jin's sword was currently being pushed back by Pyra and Mythra's Core Crystal that was floating between him and Rex. He lowered his blade and had a shocked expression on his face. "Wh- what? How?!" he wondered aloud. Rex was on the opposite side of it and slowly opened his eyes. Reached out and grabbed the Crystal. When he did, a bright light emitted from it and took the form of a sword. He swung the Crystal to his side and the light faded as the sword fully materialized.

"A new sword?!" Malos stared at it in disbelief.

Just as he said that Pyra and Nia began to float in the air behind Rex. Pyras Core Crystal started to glow brightly and her body slowly de-materialized then was sucked into the crystal.

" _We might not have the memories to use it, but our powers are still here!"_

Pyra and Mythra's voice echoed throughout the whole area for everyone to hear. Their Core Crystal then flew into Nia's chest and placed itself on top of her broken one. A bright mixed green, blue, and red light blinded everyone as an Aegis Core Crystal slowly merged with that of a Flesh Eater's.

Malos used his free hand to cover his eyes "You've GOT to be kidding me?!" he shouted, getting even more irritated.

The green light eventually overtook the blue and red then began to die down a bit. Nia now had the green Aegis Core Crystal embedded in her chest while her old blue and red Flesh Eater one fully filled in the center 'X' that was missing. She also had some kind of white and green robotic suit along with green glowing hair that was now in a single ponytail. Her long ears were probably the only thing that didn't change as much and only gained a light green tint to them.

Rex stared at her in awe as green particles flowed around her entire body and two strange robotic devices were floating on each of her sides. "Nia!" he shouted to get her attention as she slowly descended to touch the ground. Just as he said that, his body began to glow as well and his usual salvaging suit was replaced with stronger white armor with glowing green shoulder blades. He looked down at his free hand and new suit with the same baffled expression. "What is..." before he could say anymore, Nia finally spoke up.

"Rex." she smiled and looked at him. "I don't really know what's goin' on, but I think we both owe Pyra and Mythra." she said as she examined her own new appearance as well.

Rex's face softened and he smiled back at her then nodded in agreement. "Yeah!" he said then turned around and swung his sword, glaring at Jin and Malos with Nia doing the same. "Everyone! Attack!" he yelled, knowing now was the time to turn the tables. "Payback time!" Nia grinned and floated a couple feet in the air just behind Rex.

Rex charged forward and swung his sword at Jin once again. But unlike the previous times when they clash, Jin was pushed back. Hard. Though he did a mid-air back flip and managed to recover easily enough. "Tch..." he groaned and then decided to kick it up a notch. He began to move as quickly as he could and close the distance between him and Rex. He swung his sword, but Rex managed to deflect it, however Jin swiftly kicked him afterwards pushing him back a little.

Nia lifted her hands up and the damage Rex received was instantly healed. Rex turned to look at Nia. "Nia, Use foresight!" she gritted her teeth and made a troubled expression. "Rex! I don't even know what I'm doin' right now!" she yelled back and started pushing more power into him as Jin re-engaged. Their swords clashed and they Rex was making sure to avoid Jins sword strikes, but he would still hit him with lighter blows. "Just do it!" Rex shouted and clashed swords with Jin once again. "Easy for yo-" he cut her off before she could finish. "Nia! I believe in you!" he told her and smiled. "This is something you can do!"

Nia looked annoyed but closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Keeping her hands held up and pointing in Rex's direction she tried to 'feel' for whatever it was she was trying to do.  _"C'mon Nia... You never acted before because you were afraid, so don't be afraid to dive in now!"_  she told herself and then pushed harder and just felt something 'click' the right way. She opened her eyes and grinned. "Now! Rex!" she yelled.

Rex leaped towards Jin and swung his sword downward. Jin managed to avoid the attack but it sprayed powerful light particles out as it hit the ground. "H- how?" Jin questioned but Rex ignored him and slowly looked up with a confident grin. The two of them then instantly entered a light-speed battle. Moving across the battlefield at absurd speeds and created small shockwaves with each clash of their blades.

Jin was then pushed back by a strong hit from Rex and slid along the ground until he stabilized himself. He swung his sword to his side and glared at Rex with annoyance. "How are you matching my speed?!" he demanded. Rex didn't bother to answer, instead he nearly teleported in front of Jin, ready to strike again. Just when Jin was about to move, Rex moved with him and they entered another light-speed clash. "You can't have such power!" he shouted as they did battle.

Just as he said that, Rex hit him with another blow, sending Jin flying across the ruins and into the mountain side. Rex followed suit and flew over there to press the attack. Once their blades clashed again Rex decided to speak up. "I don't get it, but I'm not complaining!" he shouted and continued his attack.

Nia grinned nervously  _"Neither do I... To be honest..."_ She thought idly and looked down at her arms, They were covered in armor while green particles surrounded her body.  _"Is this the power that Pyra and Mythra had? It's incredible... Too incredible..."_  she thought and then looked back up to watch Rex and Jin do battle. Rex wasn't just matching Jin's speed, he was pushing him back as well.

Their battle was beginning to destroy part of the ruins and they flung from one side to another at light-speed. Rex got the upper hand and managed to land a strong blow on Jin, sending him bashing into one of the mountain sides. Nia decided to get more involved as well. The two machine-like devices floating at her sides opened up and she began to fly up into the sky as well. "Rex! Let's finish this!" she shouted happily and hovered over the Rex. He looked over and nodded- "Yeah, let's do it!" he shouted and lifted their new sword up so she could grab its hilt as well. They held the blade between themselves and Nia used her devices to shoot out particles and launch them forward towards Jin. They let out a loud battle cry together and swung their sword with all their strength, flinging Jin back onto ground level. The two of them then floated down as well and pointed their sword at him together.

"You want some more?" Rex asked, though he hoped he'd just give up already. But now that he wasn't fighting just to survive anymore, he finally noticed something when looking at Jin's eyes. "He... Looks so sad..." Rex mumbled.

"Weak..." Jin told them and took a step forward. They both looked at him in confusion. "End me now or you'll live to regret it." he told them. Nia gripped their sword even harder, knowing they should probably do what he says... But... She looked down feeling conflicted. No matter the atrocities Jin has done, deep down she was still grateful that he saved her that day long ago. But that wasn't important right now!

"Rex, let's-" she didn't finish because Rex lessened his grip on their sword and lowered it. Nia was surprised and let go so it went to Rex's side. "I don't want to fight you... I just want to get to Elysium." he told him and stepped forward. "That's all. I won't let you stop me."

"That's not going to happen." Malos decided to step in at this point. "We have goals of our own. You and anything that stands in the way will be wiped out." Rex shook his head as he didn't understand. "What goals?" he asked.

Jin gritted his teeth and growled. "Our only purpose. Destroy humanity. Destroy the world... Then..." he paused. "Destroy the Architect!" Malos finished for him. Rex and Nia looked shocked. "What?!" they both spoke.

Malos brought his hand up to his Core Crystal and explained further. "I am an Aegis... Created by the Architect to erase existence..." he then swung his hand to the side. "The ultimate weapon. The EndBringer!"

Rex couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Endbringer?" he questioned. Nia thought he sounded crazy as well. "Have you gone mad?" she asked with a baffled expression.

Malos shook his head. "'Mad'? My only purpose is to destroy. I am the Endbringer." he state again. "That is why I must go to Elysium... And awaken the ultimate Artifice, Aion!" When he said that name, Nia had an image pass through her mind of that giant robot they saw during their vision.  _"He wants to awaken THAT thing?! He really has gone mad!"_

Nia shook her head like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You can't be serious!" she shouted at him. Malos started to walk closer to the edge while looking at the two of them. "I'm nothing but serious. This is the sacred duty entrusted to the Aegises by the Architect!"

"You're wrong! There's no way the Architect wants that!" he yelled back. But it fell on deaf ears. "Enough. I KNOW I'M RIGHT!" Malos shouted and lifted both his hands up. Ophion suddenly flew up from the abyss and looked down on their battle. "IT ENDS HERE!" Malos shouted and Ophion started charging up an energy attack from his mouth.

Nia clenched her teeth and closed her eyes.  _"I- I can't let this happen!"_  she told herself and tried to concentrate on something, anything that could help.  _"Gah! I don't even know what I'm doin'!"_ she placed her hand on her head and squeezed, trying to figure out if her new powers could help.

She then felt someone grab her hand and bring it down from her head. "Huh?" she opened her eyes and looked to see Rex holding it. "Nia, relax." he told her and squeezed it. "Rex..." she mumbled and was locked in his eyes. He smiled "Right now, you can do anything you set your mind to." he then looked up at Ophion as it charged its attack. "Even beat that. I know you can!" he assured her, but truth be told he was nervous as well and she knew he was. She could feel his hand shaking while holding hers since he grabbed it. She smiled at him.  _"Idiot."_  she thought and squeezed his hand as well.

Nia then turned to look up at Ophion as well. "I WONT LET YOU!" she shouted and lifted her other hand, trying to concentrate. Malos laughed- "Hah! What could you do?! You could have all the power in the world but you'll still fail if you don't know how to use it!" he shouted back

Nia closed her eyes and gritted her teeth trying even harder. "I... Can do..." she then clenched her fist while it was pointed up into the sky. "Now! Ophion! Fire!" Malos yelled and Nia opened her eyes and screamed. "SIREN!"

A giant laser shot from the sky and went straight through Ophion, sending it staggering in the air. But it's particle laser still went off and hit into the supports holding the ruins over the void. A strong tremor happened and the platform over the void started to fall apart, while everyone standing on top of it fell into the depths of Morytha.


	5. Chapter 5

Rex opened his eyes to see nothing but darkness. He looked to his left and right then spun around to see nothing but a dark void surrounding him. "Wha? Where am I?" he asked aloud and his voice echoed.

" _Rex."_

He heard Pyra's voice and quickly turned around. She was a few yards away from him, smiling. "Pyra!" Rex shouted then entered a dash towards her. When he got close she started to fade away and he passed right through her.

"No! Pyra!" he yelled and turned around to look where he passed through her. He saw Mythra, standing where he was a few moments ago. "Mythra!" he shouted again and ran towards her just like he did with Pyra but this time no matter how much he ran he never closed the distance. "Mythra come here!" he yelled and lifted his hand out.

" _Goodbye Rex."_

The distance between them began to quickly grow despite the fact that he was running forward. Eventually he couldn't even see her anymore and his entire world grew dark again.

* * *

"Mythra!" Rex shouted and lifted his body off the ground in a panic. He looked to his right to see nothing but rubble. "Pyra!" he yelled again and turned to his left. What he was met with was Nia who was sitting down, deadpanning at him. She was in her normal blade form and he was currently in his original salvaging suit.

Rex blinked a couple times, realizing he was only having a nightmare. "N- Nia." he said, a bit shocked to see her so abruptly. She leaned back and crossed her arms. "And here I was worried about ya'" she said in annoyance.  _"He even dreams about 'em, huh?"_ she internally sighed.

It took Rex a few seconds of just staring back at her to realize what she meant by that. His eyes widened and he quickly say up straight and crossed his legs. "N- no, I was just having a dream-" he stopped then balled his hands and gritted his teeth as he tried to think of something to say.

Nia let out a sigh and shrugged- "Forget about it. We've more important things to worry about anyway." she told him and then looked around the area. Rex did so as well.  _"Right... Forget about it... Just forget about it."_

He wasn't forgetting about it. His eyes eventually landed back on Nia as she continued to glance around the ruins. _"Ugh... I really messed up, didn't I?"_ he asked himself and remembered calling out Pyra and Mythras names. Gritting his teeth, he kept mulling over the dream in his head.  _"Stupid nightmare, UGH stupid ME!"_

"Hey! Focus!" he heard Nia yell then suddenly slapped him on the back of his head.  **"OW!"**  they both cried in pain and reached up to rub their now sore spot. Rex turned to Nia and glared angrily at her. "What do you think you're doing?!" he asked but she ignored him for the most part.

"What the  _hell_ was that?!" she wondered and rubbed the back of her head. She's the one who hit him, she should feel the pa-. Her thoughts suddenly stopped as realization dawned on her. She raised her other hand to tap on her new Aegis Core Crystal and looked at Rex's. She could feel his pain, just as Pyra and Mythra could! Part of her was actually happy about these turn of events, considering how much she envied Pyra and Mythra for their connection with Rex... But it was immediately replaced with guilt for feeling happy that she has her friends Core Crystal.

"Hey! Are you listening to me!" Nia was snapped out of her thoughts when Rex raised his voice. She blinked and looked up at his face. "O- oh... Feh, Whatever, stop bein' a crybaby." she told him and finally stood up off the ground. Rex also stood up but was still looking at her, annoyed she hit him. He was about to say something to retort but finally noticed her hand was still rubbing the back of her head, same as him. "... So you felt it too then?" he asked.

She flinched and finally lowered her hand then nodded. "Yeah..." she confirmed and then gave a sly grin. "That's how I know you're bein' a crybaby." Rex lifted his fists up like he was going into a fight. "Oh c'mon!" he said. Nia closed her eyes and let out a happy laugh- "Hehe, oh relax. I'm only jokin'." she told him and gestured at their surroundings. "But really, just where are we." Rex let out a sigh and tore his glare away from Nia to look around as well.

It was all broken building, rubble, and if you looked up you'd see strange blue and green winds hovering over them. The entire area gave off a feeling of 'death' that that could barely be compared to that of the cliffs. Rex then remembered that the last thing he saw before waking up was when Ophion blew up the platforms supports and they all fell. "Morytha... This must be Morytha." Nia didn't want to admit it, but that sounded about right. "... Land o' the Dead alright..." she agreed, quoting Dromarch.

Though there was one thing Nia was still confused about. "How'd we even survive the fall?" she asked. Its not like they had anything soft to land on and it looked like a long way down. Rex looked up and noticed the strong winds. "It looks like... There's some kinda powerful updraft... Maybe it saved us? I wonder if it caught the others too." Nia nodded. "We should get movin' and find 'em."

Rex looked around the area again. There seemed to be some kind of road, but it was all broken down and had piles of rubble along it. "We're do we even begin though?" he asked and Nia grabbed his arm to drag him around the corner. "See that?" she asked then let go and pointed towards a dark shadow in the distance. Rex squinted his eyes and tried to see it more clearly. "Is that... The World Tree's roots?" he asked and relaxed his eyes. Nia turned back at him. "Yeah, Hopefully there's a way up there. Plus it's the only landmark, I'm sure the others will go there too." Rex smiled and nodded his head. "Yeah! We should get going then!" he said and ran passed her. "H- hey!" Nia whined but then just sighed and started to follow him.

* * *

As they were walking Rex looked over to Nia and finally realized that her clothes were different.  _"That's right... She had some kinda robotic suit and particles floated around her."_ he remembered. Nia then looked over and noticed him staring. She stopped walking and turned to him. "Hm? Is somethin' wrong?" she asked.

Rex stopped as well. "Uhh... Actually, now that I think about it- didn't your looks change?" he asked and gestured to her clothes and hair. "Yeah, it was more... Green... Even your hair changed. What was that all about?" Nia shrugged and shook her head. "I dunno, I just kinda went along with it." she said and pointed to him. "Your clothes changed too ya' know. You had betta' armor. It was glowin' too." Rex looked down to see his old Salvager get up. "Aww man, I really liked my new armor!" he whined and looked back up. "Nia, bring it all back!" he begged.

Nia sighed and shook her head. "I swear, you can be such a kid at times." she told him looked down at her hands. "But too be honest, I dunno how. I tried a couple times while you were still outta it." Rex kicked the ground, acting upset. "Damn..." he mumbled and looked over at Nia's hair. "Aw well, I kinda preferred you hair in that form."

Nia's eyes widened and she jumped a bit from the... 'compliment'. A blush spread itself on her face and she pressed her fists against her waist. "Is that seriously what you look at when we're fightin' for our lives?" she scolded. Rex just scratched the back of his head and let out a laugh. Though they were interrupted by sounds of battle nearby.

"What was that?" Nia asked and looked over to where the sound was coming from. "It's the others, c'mon!" Rex shouted and dashed towards it and around the corner, Nia following right behind him.

Who they ran into wasn't one of their friends though, instead it was Jin getting blasted away by a red laser. "Jin?! He's here too?" Nia said aloud. Rex nodded- "Looks like it."

He fell to his knee and groaned in pain. "Guh... I can't..." he mumbled and glared at the abomination in front of him. "I can't lose to these fools!" he stood up and readied his sword and ran at the monster. But his wounds ached and before he could land a blow, the creature slammed its arm down on his head, pushing him to the floor once again.

Rex gasped and noticed some Red either leak off his body. "He's still wounded from before?!" he stated and immediately ran forward. Nia was surprised "Rex? What're you doin'?" she asked but he ignored her.

The monster lifted his arm up to slam it down on Jin again, but just as it tried to Rex lifted Nia's sword off his waist and swung it, not only deflecting the creatures attack but knocking it a few feet back and onto the ground. Jin looked up "You?! Why?!" he asked Rex.

Rex didn't turn around and kept his eyes focused on the monster in front of him. "You can't move, right? I can't just let you die here. Even if you are my enemy!" he answered and the monster slowly got back up. Nia then ran up to Rex and stood at his side. "Of all the- Now we're saving Jin of all people?!" Rex let out a light laugh. "Oh c'mon, I know you wanted too as well." he smiled and looked over at her. She gave him an annoyed look but then just took a deep breath. "Oh, alright. Let's beat this thing and get outta here already." Rex nodded "Right!"

Rex ran forward and dodged one of the creatures arms then slashed into its stomach. It slid back a couple feet but started walking forward again like nothing happened. "Do these things just not feel pain?" he asked and Nia ran up behind him. "Maybe, but it's slow. End it with a strong attack." she told him and started sending him more power.

Rex held his sword in front of him and focused Nia's power into it. Water began to around the blade itself and he ran towards the creature then leaped up, over it. While directly overhead he swung his sword down. "Take this!" he shouted and a torrent of water came shooting out of the sword and completely engulfed the monster. When the water stopped, Rex fell back down and safely landed. While the monster let out a groan then collapsed on the ground and stopped moving. Rex latched his sword on his back and Nia stopped linking with him.

Jin examined the whole fight and realized they weren't actually using any of the Aegis's powers, only Nia's. He was a bit curious as to why, but a much bigger question plagued his thoughts at the moment. He stood up off the ground and turned towards Rex. "But why did you help me? I'm-" Rex frowned and finished for him. "Our enemy?" he asked and shook his head. "Yeah, we know that... But even so, it would have been wrong." he then looked at the creatures corpse. "I just thought, I can't let it end like that... Not from some random monster." Images of the way Jin looked after their fight at the Cliffs and Rex was reminded about how sad he looked at the time. "And... No... Nevermind."

Jin didn't know what to make of Rex's answer but was hit with pain and fell back to his knee, groaning. "H- hey! Are you alright?" Rex asked but then the monster they thought they defeated got back up off the ground. Nia was shocked. "You've gotta be jokin'! That thing should be dead!" she said and the creature lifted its arm up to hit Jin again. But just before it could a blue fireball hit it in its back, igniting its entire body in flames. It fell back on the ground, burning away.

All three of them recognized that attack. "Those flames!" Rex said and they looked up at where they came from. He saw Bighid, Poppi, and even Azurda standing on top of a broken down building."You've got a lot to learn." Brighid told him. "You've got to burn these monsters up. That, or smash their Core Crystal. Otherwise they'll keep coming."

Rex smiled happily to see his friends safe. "Brighid! Poppi! Gramps!" Poppi raised her hand in the air and waved. "Poppi find friends!" she announced. Azurda then looked over to see Jin kneeling on the ground. "B- but... Jin?" he questioned. Just as he did, Jin's body gave out and he fully collapsed on the ground.

After that they all decided to gather on ground level and discuss the situation. Nia noticed that lack of Mórag and Tora. "So, you lost the others huh?" she asked. Poppi smiled and tilted back and forth a bit. "Don't worry. Masterpon not as soft as he look!" she answered and Brighid brought her hand to her chin while thinking. "Hm.. I can feel the power signature coming off of Mórag's weapons. She's here."

Rex nodded. "Alright, they we should rest up and then head out to look for them." he told them all. Brighid then looked over at the unconscious Jin. "So what about that scumbag?" she asked. Rex looked over as well. "Ah... Well... I think I beat him pretty bad in our fight... And I couldn't just leave him to die." he said a bit nervously. Nia dramatically shrugged her shoulders right behind him. "I assumed it was something like that... But what now?" Azurda asked.

Rex turned and looked over at Nia. "Hey, Nia... You think you could, uh..." She let out a sigh "First we save our enemy now ya' want me to heal 'em too?" She was a little confused about Rex's... questionable decisions. "Oh c'mon Nia, It's not like you don't want to." he told her. She flinched and gritted her fangs. "That's not the point!" she's begun to regret ever telling Rex that Jin saved her from captivity. "Ugh, fine. I'll do it." she relented and walked over.

Nia knelt down and noticed that his Core Crystal was cracked.  _"Ooph, I dunno if I can fix that..."_ she thought and lifted her hand up. She concentrated her healing power into her palm and waves of soothing energy wafted down on to Jin. The Aegis Core Crystal on her chest then started to glow, giving her much more power. "Wha?" she mumbled and in just a moment Jins Core Crystal was fixed.

Everyone around her was more than less entranced by her display of healing just done. Brighid was the first to speak up. "What awesome power you've acquired." Nia looked down at the hand she's used as well as her new Core Crystal as it gave her more and more power. Though thanks to that power, she suddenly realized something about the man she's healing. "What?!" she said in a panic and stood up, ending her healing.

Rex walked over "What's wrong?" he asked with a bit of concern. Nia stared down at Jin in surprise. "Jin... He has a Human heart... He's... A Flesh Eater!" she announced and the rest of them seemed surprised at the new information as well.  _"He's... Just like me then..."_  Nia thought to herself and the look of shock slowly turned to one of more understanding.

Jin opened his eyes a few moments later and quickly sat up. He brought his hand up to his Core Crystal and touched it, feeling that it was now fixed. He turned towards Rex and Nia. "Wh- what did you do to me?"

Nia crossed her arms and gave him a glare. "What does it look like? We healed you." she made a grin. "Maybe now you wont be such a stick in the mud towards us." He squinted his eyes, unsure how to respond. "Nia..." he mumbled. "You're a lucky man Jin." Brighid spoke with a frown on her face. "You've been given the second chance you denied so many brave Ardanians. I doubt your luck would hold up so well if Mórag were here!" Rex stepped forward. "Hey, easy now. We're all stuck down here together, fighting would only make things worse."

Nia turned towards Jin. "Anyway Jin, you're a Flesh Eater. That means you've been alive this whole time and fought against Malos once right? What happened?" Jin let out a sigh. He was hoping that him being a Flesh Eater wouldn't get out, though at least Mythra wasn't around to press him about it. "You really want to know? You only think you do. If you knew, it'd destroy you too."

That answer didn't really sit well with Nia. "What the hell does that mean?!" she then gestured to where they were standing. "We're in the Land o' the Dead, all with injuries, separated, and who knows how far away from Alrest." she crossed her arms. "Can ya' give it a rest with the cryptic answers already!" Jin sighed and stayed silent. Nia uncrossed her arms and looked towards the ground. "Look, I know you wanna destroy everything... I think I did too... For a time. Losing my family, becomin' a  _Flesh Eater_ , bein' chased across Alrest... I just... I hated it all... It's one of the reasons I joined Torna to begin with." She brought her hand up to touch her Core Crystal and looked up at him. "But... Now I think there's a different way... One that's not so destructive." Jin listened but continued to stay silent. He didn't want to talk about this, he's made his mind up a long time ago.

The silence lasted for around a minute and it didn't seem like anything was going to be gained from this but Rex wanted to say something as well. "With everything you've done, we can't just forgive you..." he said, grabbing Jin's attention. "And if you're going to keep standing in our way in the future, keep trying to destroy the world, we will stop you. But right now we should work together." Jin just shook his head. "Naive kid. This is the Land of Morytha. And it's a place of more wickedness than you can imagine." Rex looked a little surprised. "You know of it?" he asked and Jin nodded. "This land was destroyed long before Alrest existed. It's the birthplace of the Architect." That last fact shocked the group except for Nia kept her calm. She looked up at Jin. "Look, we both wanna climb the world tree right? Can we just save all the fightin' for when we're up there?" she asked, hoping they can at least make it that far together. Jin crossed his arms and thought about it. "A united front?" he let out a sigh and lowered his arms. "As you wish. I'm in no position to negotiate anyway."

* * *

After that they all decided to rest for a while before pushing forward. Jin decided to sit down and rest against a pile of rubble a few yards away as the rest of them huddled together. A few moments passed before Brighid, followed by Poppi walked over to speak with Jin about something. Nia's been silent since their conversation earlier. The fact that Jin was a Flesh Eater has been bugging her as well as all these new powers she keep discovering. Rex was also bothered by something, but it wasn't about Jin, the new powers, or anything about their current situation really.

Now that he had some down time, Rex started thinking about a few things he'd rather not. He looked over at Nia then down at her Core Crystal. He remembered what he told her back at the ruins.

" _Uhm... A- after we rescue Pyra and Mythra... There's something I wanna tell you."_

He clenched his fist and gritted his teeth. How's he supposed to tell her anything now? Pyra and Mythra are gone and their Core Crystal is embedded in Nia's chest. What kind of situation is this? How's he supposed to say anything?

" _It's just... Something that has to be said after they're safe, okay?"_

Rex continued to stare at her Core Crystal and let out a sigh. It pained him to think about it all but he couldn't help it. _"Ugh, I didn't realize I was driving myself into this kind of corner when I said that..."_  his mind then thought about when he held her hand while they were fighting Malos' Ophion and a blush crept on his face. He couldn't help but think about how strong and cool she was at the time, calling down Sirens laser and saving them all.  _"I guess I could just tell her... But would it mean as much in this situation?"_

Nia then spoke up to snap him out of his thoughts. "It must remind you of them, huh?" she asked while looking away at the ground. Rex was a little confused. "What do you mean?" he asked. Nia smiled and tapped her Core Crystal. "Pyra and Mythra... You've been staring at their Core Crystal a while now." she sounded a bit sad when she spoke. Rex's eyes widened and he panicked a little. "Wha? I- I wasn't thinking abou-" he was cut off by Nia letting out a laugh and turning towards him. "Relax. It''s fine, I know you care about them." she made a smile "We'll bring them back. Hell, I'll make sure they come back."

Something didn't sit right with Rex. He heard what she was saying and it didn't sound like a lie. But it felt so... Hollow. "L- look. Nia, I just wan-" she cut him off again by standing up. "I'm tired... Gonna go get some sleep in. You should too." she told him and walked over to lean against a rock. Rex had a look of concern on his face as she walked away, it felt like everything just suddenly went in the wrong direction just now and he had no idea why.  _"But... I wasn't even thinking about Pyra or Mythra..."_ he watched her lean against the rock with her eyes closed, trying to sleep. _"I was thinking about you..."_


	6. Chapter 6

It was hard to tell weather it was day or night down in Morytha, but the group decided to go to sleep anyway. Luckily they had Poppi around who didn't need sleep to keep watch for them while they rested.

Nia was laying on the ground, asleep when she heard some footsteps go by and twisted around to see Poppi run up some rubble. "... Poppi?" she mumbled while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She got up and started to walk after her and found that she was simply standing at the edge of a broken bridge staring into the broken down city. As she approached, Poppi spoke. "Very quiet..." Nia walked up beside her and also looked out into the city. "Yeah... I suppose it is..." A few moments passed with the two of them just examining the city ruins.

"... Poppi think... This world achieved very big technological advancement. Many buildings. Many people. Everybody... Probably very happy here." She then looked down a little sad. "But..." before she could continue Nia spoke up. "Doesn't look all that great to me." she stated and Poppi looked up in surprise. Nia continued to look out into the ruins. "All this fancy stuff and look where it got 'em..." she placed her hand on her hip. "They're all gone and their world is in ruins..."

Poppi turned away and looked back at the ground. "Poppi was made by technological advancement too!" this caught Nia's attention and she turned to look at Poppi. "Will Poppi... Destroy the world as well?" she asked and glanced back over at the ruins looking sad. Nia's eyes widened "N- no! That's not what I-" she let out a sigh and placed her hand on Poppi's shoulder, grabbing her attention. "Poppi, there's no way you'd destroy the world... I think 'destruction' was the last thing on Tora's mind when designing you..." she said and smiled. Poppi nodded but still looked a little unsure. Nia lifted her hand off Poppi's shoulder and let out a sigh. "But... I think I know what you mean..." she said and Poppi looked interested. "What Nia mean?" she asked.

Nia touched her Core Crystal and looked down at it. "Ever since I got this thing I've been so unsure how to use it... I'm afraid if I do something wrong, it'll end horribly..." her mind flashed back to when she heard about the previous Aegis war... Even Titans couldn't withstand that kind of destruction. Poppi looked back down at the ground. "Poppi doesn't want the world to get destroyed." Nia smiled and nodded. "That's something we can agree on... So how about we make a promise?" she asked. Poppi looked up and questioned her. "A promise?" Nia placed both her fists on her hips and grinned. "I promise that if you ever become  _dumb_  enough to destroy the world, I'll do everything in my power to stop you."

Poppi stared up at her blankly for a few seconds but then let out a laugh. "Haha. Okay!" she said happily. "But... What will Poppi do for you?" she asked and wanted to return the favor. Nia crossed her arms and thought about it for a moment. "Hm..." she shrugged and brought her arms down. "Let's just say ya' owe me one. That sound fair?" Poppi smiled happily and nodded. Nia turned around "C'mon, let's get back to the others." she said and the two of them walked back down to ground level.

* * *

When Nia and Poppi got back the rest of them were starting to wake up as well. "Hm? Where'd you two go off to?" Rex asked. Nia just shrugged her shoulders "We just took a little walk around." Rex nodded and lifted his hand up to scratch the back of his head "Hey... Uh Nia, listen... About last nigh-"

Before he could finish Brighid interrupted "We should get moving. We've no idea how the world works down here... The sooner we find the others and get out the better." Everyone besides Rex nodded and started to walk away. "H- hey Nia!" Rex reached his hand out as she left and she turned around. "Is now really the time? Save it for later." she told him then turned back and kept walking. He let out a sigh and started to trot along with them  _"When's 'later'?"_  he asked himself.

They all walked for only a few minutes, avoiding as many of those strange monsters as they could. Eventually they started walking through a long tunnel with a large group of the creatures wandering about. Poppi waved her arms up and down "So many many..." she stated. Rex nodded "Yeah... So what do we do about them?" he asked and turned to look at everyone. Nia looked around the place "I doubt there'd be a way around 'em..." she said then Jin just unsheathed his sword and started walking towards them. Rex's eyes snapped to the swordsman "Jin?" he asked but Jin just kept going. "Even if there was a way around, it'd take too long." Rex took a deep breath and nodded "No arguments there!" he said and Nia lifted her hands up to send him power. Her sword appeared in his hands and he got into his ready stance. Brighid also lifted her hand up and created her own flaming rapier. "No option but to wipe them out. Let's do it!"

Rex and Jin charged towards the group of monsters and began taking swings at them. They were all very slow and easy to avoid, though their durability was very high and their numbers didn't seem to ever lower no matter how many times they knocked one down. It'd simply get back up then start attacking them again. Brighid was trying to burn them one by one but didn't have enough power to deal with them all without Mórag around.

Nia kept up her healing and made sure everyone wasn't taking much damage but they were at a stalemate against these creatures and it's not like they had unlimited stamina. "Tch, this is gettin' annoying!" Just as she said that one of the monsters got close to her and swung its arm down. Poppi flew over with her rocket boots and headbutted it in the stomach, forcing it to tumble onto the ground. Nia let out a sigh of relief "Thanks Poppi." Poppi nodded and used her eyes to focus in on the creature she just knocked down, it was getting back up and began walking like nothing hit it. "Monsters not damaged from Poppis attacks..." she sounded upset.

Rex swung his sword and sent out a water-slash that sliced into two of them, but all it did was send them sliding back a few feet. "This is getting us nowhere!" he shouted and Jin was having an equal amount of trouble dealing actual damage to these things. They didn't have any weak points, they were just blobs of mass. Rex took a few steps back until he bumped into Brighid and took notice that they were now surrounded. There were about twenty of them circling around them, slowly closing in. Nia gritted her teeth and closed her eyes, trying to concentrate.  _"If I could just transform again..."_  she told herself and tried to remember how she did it the first time.

Rex frowned and looked around at all the monsters. They only had a few seconds before they were going to be trapped.  _"Dammit... If only me and Nia could use that power..."_  he thought but then remembered what Brighid said when she defeated the first one.

" _You've got to burn these monsters up."_

That's what she said... But there's just too many around for Brighid to handle it herself and who knows where Mórag was right now. Rex gritted his teeth  _"We need fire..."_  he thought. Meanwhile Nia, who was trying to figure out how to transform accidentally stopped focusing her power into Rex, causing their link to crumble. It was that moment that Brighid felt something strange, yet familiar. Her power started to link up, however it wasn't with Mórag, but with Rex!

Brighid didn't know exactly what was happening but decided that she could think about it after they make it out of this mess. She lifts her hand up and starts pushing her power into Rex and fully forms a link with him. "Wha?!" Rex shouts and Nia sword suddenly de-materializes and Brighid's dual rapiers take its place. In that moment, Rex releases a strong wave of blue flames that shoot forward and began burning everything in its path. The sudden explosion of fire snapped Nia out of her concentration and she opened her eyes thinking that she managed to give Rex some power. Instead she saw that their link was broken and he was linking up with Brighid instead.

Nia's eyes widened in surprise-  **"WHAT?!"**  she shouted. None of this made any sense, there was no way Brighid was able to link with Rex! How was this even possible?!

Though while she was thinking that, Rex and Brighid were running around burning each one of the monsters into dust. Now that she had a Driver she could send power to, killing these creatures was child's play. It only took a few minutes, but they managed to defeat the last one. He sheathed Brighids rapiers and looked down at their corpses "I've never seen monsters like this..." he said. But Nia ran over and grabbed him by the collar to yank his attention over to her. "That's all you're curious about? What about all this nonsense about linking with Brighid?" She let go of his collar and crossed her arms. "How's this even possible?"

Rex looked confused as well and turned to Brighid. She brought her hand up to her cheek and started to think "To be honest I haven't a clue. This was a first for me as well." she admitted. Jin then walked forward a spoke, grabbing all their attention "It probably has something to do with having part of the Aegis's Core Crystal in your chest now that you've unlocked its powers." Rex looked down and poked his Core Crystal "Hm? This thing?" Jin nodded. "Even though it's obvious you two have no idea what you're doing..." he said and looked at Rex and then Nia- "The power's still there and apparently it'll let you form a link with other Blades. Even ones you didn't awaken."

Brighid was very intrigued by this turn of events and paid close attention to what Jin informed them about. "Incredible... With this kind of power Rex could theoretically target the weaknesses of any foe." Rex nodded with a happy grin. "Hey, yeah! I bet climbing the world tree is gonna be a piece of cake now! Right Nia?" he asked and turned to her but was surprised. She was giving him a death glare while baring her fangs, it sent a chill down his spine. "Oh~?" she sung and narrowed her eyes.  **"So you'll just do it with anyone then, huh?"** she spoke calmly but venomously at the same time. Rex gulped, not really understanding what to say to that. She just started to walk passed him though. "Well good, now I don't have to baby sit ya' anymore."

Rex didn't even turn around to watch her walk away, he just stared forward blankly still trying to think of what to say.  _"What?!... How do I?... What did I?"_ he ended up just lowering his head and slouching forward feeling a bit defeated.

Nia on the other hand clenched her fists and continued walking.  _"Why did I say that?! What the hell's wrong with me?!"_  she brought her fist up and hit it lighting against her forehead.  _"Stupid! Stupid... I just..."_ She let out a sigh and un-clenched her hand to touch her Core Crystal.  _"I just wish... I was more useful there..."_ she thought and remembered how all she did was fail at using the Aegis's power.

Jin watched this stupid exchange and noticed Nia was continuing to walk along without them all. "Come on, she's not stopping and we shouldn't get separated right now." he said and started to follow her. Poppi walked up to Rex and slapped him hard on the back "Come! Friends leaving without us!" she said and started skipping along the tunnel path. He let out a sigh and stood up straight "Yeah... Alright." he mumbled and started to follow.


End file.
